


The velvet room may just be an illusion

by WoeyLeaf



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Child Abuse, Gen, Minor Character Death, Multiple identities, No rape whatsoever (I'm too weak for that), Past Child Abuse, Protagonist's dungeon, Set after Namatame's interigation, Successful Suicide Attempt, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:21:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23263144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WoeyLeaf/pseuds/WoeyLeaf
Summary: What if the velvet room didn't really exist? What if Yu was really called Souji? What if there was another reason why he has multiple personas...?
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 40





	1. Chapter 1

The loud buzzing sound rang though his head.

What time was it?

He turned his head to the side and he was met with blinding red light that spelt out random numbers. He reached out with his weak hand and turned off his alarm. 

It was 5:34 in the morning, he still had plenty of time to sleep in. He closed his eyes once more and lent his head back down into his pillow. He tossed his body around a few times to find his comfortable position again and finish of his nice dream. 

Who was he kidding, he was too wide awake now to go back to sleep now. He was still partly groggy but he doubted he could get more sleep if he wanted to, it was already hard enough to get to sleep in the first place. He must have set his alarm earlier by accident last night. 

It was too early for shopping distinct to open just yet, maybe he should go on a walk instead.

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Yu was making dinner as per usual using some of the ingredients he had picked up from his shopping trip he took earlier in the day. He bought a few things on impulse that he had never cooked with before but he knew Nanako was not a fussy eater so he was sure she wouldn't mind if it came out a bit differently.

Nanako was such a sweet girl, strong too. It really was an amazement how she was able to recover at such a tremendous rate, even the doctors were surprised too. She had endured a lot for her age, not just the past few months but for most of her young life. He was sure that she would grow into a strong and kind woman. 

As he brought the two bowls into the room he saw her already sat at the table with her crayons in one hand as she coloured in the book Yu had given her once she and Dojima had recovered and left the hospital. He placed the ceramics on the table and told her to wash up before she ate.

Dojima wasn't home either today. He was still busy down at the station trying to get a new lead on the case after Namatame's dried up. They were so certain it had been him who was responsible for the deaths during the last several months. Dojima even went as far as to chase him down in a high speed chase, and while he had been responsible to some degree he was not the true killer much to his disappointment. And even while it was important that he had to find the true culprit as soon as possible, he still wished that he would spend a little more time with his own daughter at least.

Nanako was scheduled to resume school next week and she had been excited since the first time the doctors told her that she could go back. It wasn't that she absolutely love school, she did but it was mainly due to the fact that she was tired of staying at the hospital, especially with all of the strange doctors. She was relieved that she didn't have another doctor's appointment anymore. 

Yu sat quietly beside her as he ate his food, listening to her crazy and bizarre stories about her friends. He was sure some of it was partly exaggerated, but it was nice to see her cheerful side once again.

Once they were finished Yu took their bowls to the sink to wash them. He found a clean towel to dry them with and placed them back into the respective places. After he was done he got himself a glass of water to clear his mouth and went back to join Nanako at the family table.

"Looks like it's going to rain tonight." Nanako said as she stared at the T.v in the living room. "It's been raining a lot recently hasn't it."

" Is that a problem? "

Nanako frowned slightly before shaking her head. "No, not really. It just means I can't really lay out much. Dad still doesn't trust me much to go outside when the weather's bad."

" He's just looking after you. Your still recovering, remember? "

"Yeah, I know."

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Yosuke was sure that he had the most absolutely worst day at work today. Although that pretty much applied to any day while he was working at June's. He sweared that the customers were getting ruder by the day, constantly harassing him for discounts and complaining that he wasn't doing his job good enough, even though it was very clear that he was about the only one taking his job seriously while the rest of the part-timers stood around talking about pointless gossip. Constantly fending Teddie from the freezer aisle hadn't been much fun either. 

Frustrated he threw the towel around his neck onto the bathroom floor and grabbed his clothes before hastily putting them on. He swore if Teddie went though his personal stuff again he would kill him. 

Much to his luck Teddie wasn't in his room while he came back his shower, he really didn't trust leaving him in here alone. Yosuke went down stairs with his dirty clothes in hand and made his way to the kitchen. He dumped them by the washer after deciding he'd wash them later and went to find Teddie.

"Yosuke, don't you think I would look beary nice in that?" Teddie was by the T. v watching some poorly made drama, just because a movie has a few famous actors, Yosuke thought, doesn't automatically make it a good movie.

"Yeah, Yeah. Whatever, just make sure you turn that thing off soon. My parents would be livid if they saw another high electricity bill like last time, plus it's almost time you went to bed. I don't want to hear you complain that your tired again in the morning." To him Teddie was an alright friend, although in many occasions he found him not so much a good roomate. He could be really annoying sometimes.

Teddie let out a loud sigh. "Okay, but at least let me finish this episode. I still want to know if Yuku's sister is still alive. You know I've been waiting all week to find out. The suspense is killing me."

" Whatever, I'm going to bed. Call me if you need anything. I still don't trust you with the microwave, not with what happened last time. " Yosuke turned his vision away from the blond boy and attempted to make his way towards the stairs.

"Wait, it's raining outside, Yosuke. It's only started a little bit before you went to the shower. We should stay up to watch it. "

"Huh? Yeah sure. I'll watch it, we probably should anyway. Although I doubt anything would show up anyway, Namatame's at the hospital after all."

Fair enough Yosuke stayed up to watch the Midnight Channel and passed the time watching Teddie's new favourite show. He found it hard to keep up with the plot but at least he had Teddie in his ear constantly narrating the entire story to him. Soon the next hour passed and Yosuke was left staring at a blank screen. 

Soon enough the Channel started up and a grey background covered the screen. As figured Yosuke knew nothing would show up. But it was always better to be safe than sorry. 

Just before Yosuke thought the Channel would turn off after several moments, he saw a strange shape in the middle of his T.v. What the hell was it? He thought as he subconsciously leaned closer. It seemed to be a silhouette of a person. Of who? He didn't know, the image was too blurred for him to distinguish anything identifiable.

Soon the image gained more clarity and he soon found himself staring and a boy, an high school student to be precise. He knew because he was definitely wearing the Yasogami uniform, though he couldn't tell who exactly it was. Another thing he found that was slightly odd was the sword it had in its right hand. To be honest it kind of reminded him of Yu's Katana, especially the way it held the sword in its hand and the way his other hand rested on its side.

.

.

.

It reminded him a lot about him, quite a bit actually. 

Yosuke shuffled on his knees closer to the T.v and and leaned his head ever near to the screen.

"What's wrong Yosuke?"

There was no mistaking it, it was definitely him.


	2. Chapter 2

It was him. He saw himself on his bedroom T.v, blurred and faded, but he knew it was him. And he knew it was no reflection.

He clutched his fists tightly and raised one before remembering that his hand would just go straight through rather than hitting the screen. 

He already had his personas, he told himself, he had Izanagi. He had no shadows to worry about. He could use this to set a trap for the killer and not worry about the bait getting hurt because he could defend himself on his own. This was actually a good thing.

So why was he so scared? He could use this to finally catch the true killer and bring him to justice. Everyone will be safe again and the fog will disappear from Inaba. The past year will just feel like a dream and the Investigation Team can finally get back into their normal school life and the T.v world would just feel like a bad nightmare. 

The Investigation Team... He would have to get used to not calling them that anymore. Naoto would eventually go seek a new case to slove, probably somewhere out in the city. Rise is going back to the industry in the spring with her old manager. Yukiko has the Inn to take care of, and Kanji has the textile store to think about. Chie needs to start focusing on her training if she wants to join the police force. Yosuke is always busy with June's and he was sure that he would only get busier. And as for Teddie, well he just figured he'd take Yosuke's offer of working there full-time. 

...But where did that leave him? He didn't have anything else to do once the case was solved. He had nothing to look forward to, no goals for the future. Once everything goes back to normal he would just go back to his old live. He knew they would keep in touch, that was for sure, but for how long? They would have other more important things to deal with. Yu was only ever good for as a leader, now that when he no longer bares that title, what use of him would they have?

He knew that it would happen some day, why was it only now that it hurt so much..?

He lowered his head and stared at his clutched fists, ignoring the blood that dripped down from his hand from where his nails dug into his palms.

What was the point of him anymore once he's finally had his use... What was the point of him existing anymore once it is finally over..?

He got up from where he kneeled and dusted of his legs. He figured he should go to bed now, he was too tired to think of any elusive plans. He'd discuss it with the others tomorrow and go from there. 

He closed the curtains and made his way to his bed. He was sure he would get a lot of worried calls from the others, especially from Naoto, but he wasn't in the mood for answering any calls at this time of night. He went to turn off his phone before he got any worried calls and threw his phone haphazardly on the desk. He'd deal with it later, right now he just wanted to sleep and think things over.

As he neared to his bed he swore he saw something moving behind him and sure enough the T.v turned itself back on. He moved from his place by his bed and went to check out the T.v. 

There was a picture on the floor, it was of when they were at the beach during their summer break. Other than Naoto they were all there. It was taken with Yosuke's camera just shortly before Teddie broke it by thinking it was waterproof and took it into the sea with him. It must have fallen and turned the T.v on.

He bent down and placed the picture frame back on the shelf along with the rest of his novelty figures. He really had a lot on this shelf, he hadn't realised just how much he's accumulated over the past year. Half of them he couldn't remember where he had gotten them. Some he had made himself and others he had either been given or he had found when exploring in the shadow world. He had to say there were some pretty interesting things over there.

As he stared at the the shelf he noticed the light reflected on it changed ever so slightly as if something was blocking it partly. He quickly turned around only to find that there was absolutely nothing there. He felt as if he was going paranoid, it must have been the effects of sleep deprivation that was effecting his mind. he turned back around to adjust the picture so that he made sure it wouldn't fall off again. It has been a while since he last slept. He had spent most of his previous evenings visiting Nanako at the hospital so any free time he actually had he could hardly sleep because of his constant stress of a new threat. It would-

Huh..!?

What the hell was that!? What was that he felt around his arm..!? He looked down as he tried to control his fear and saw something black that painfully wrapped around it. It burned where it held on to him like as if someone had poured acid all over his arm.

From the T.v long black ropes of blackness stretched outside the screen from within the T.v. They were like harden congealed slime and more of them came out of the screen to wrap around the rest of his body. 

He felt his the bottom of his feet being slowly moved from its place as the blackness tried to pull on him towards the static. He tried to put on the ropes but once he finally managed to pull one apart another would take its place.

By the time he reached the place in front of the T.v he started to panic. Why was he unable to pull away from it? He had fought stronger shadows before and yet he no matter how powerful he was in the other world, in the real world without his personas he couldn't do anything.

He was suddenly pushed back into his T.v and he grabbed onto the sides of his T.v as the rest of his body entered. It was impossibly strong. He tried to pull himself back out but he struggled to overcome the immense force that pulled on his legs. With a final tug from the other side he finally lost grip.

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Jesus...! Why wasn't he picking up!? It was unlike him to not answer his phone let alone hearing it ring more than twice, he should have his phone on especially since it's raining. Maybe his phone was dead and had forgotten to charge it. Either way he shouldn't be feeling this worried. Maybe it was down to the fact that he personally knew the person on the Channel as selfishly as it sounded. 

Namatame is in hospital and knows the truth now so he wouldn't be pushing in anymore people, plus no one ever disappeared until a few days later after appearing. Yu didn't even have a shadow anyway, in fact he had a whole archive of personas. He was more than capable of holding his ground, that's why they had made him leader.

He felt his phone buzz and quickly opened it to find Naoto in the caller ID. 

" Is it Sensei calling?" Teddie said as he stood from behind Yosuke. Teddie had finally calmed down from the Midnight Channel although you could still hear the worried tone faint in his voice.

[Hello, Yosuke. Are you home right now?]

Yes, and so is Teddie. Why?

[ I'm assuming you've seen Midnight Channel just a few moments ago.]

Yeah, I did. Do you have any idea why he was on there?

[No, not exactly. I was hoping you would be able to tell me, after all you are the closest to him. I figured you understand him better than me. Do you have any idea why Narukami made an appearance on the Channel at all?]

No, not really. In fact he's the last person I'd expect on it. He's been inside the T.v countless of times with us.

[That's true. We still don't know how the Midnight Channel actually works. There could be many reasons, so far we still don't truly know why the previous guests had appearances on it. The only thing they have in common is that they all ended up inside and that was because of the aid of others such as Namatame. With the appearance of Nanako I'm starting to wonder if it is completely random.

I'm sure that Narukami's fine for now. It would on cause more problems if we went into it now. We'll meet first thing tomorrow before school starts to discuss this further. I'll make sure to text the others. Tell me if anything comes up.]

Okay, I'll make sure that Teddie and I will show up then. Although I doubt I'll get much sleep tonight now. See you later Naoto.

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And he didn't show up that morning, he didn't show up at all to school that day. 

"Of course he doesn't show up, at the worst time as well." Chie sighed . " If he's sick it's hell of a time to get ill. It's just making me worry more than I should."

"Maybe he got scared and is hiding at home." Yukiko suggested bluntly.

"No way, this is Senpai we're talking about. " Kanji cut her off quickly. "He's got more guts than any of us combined, almost nothing fazes him... Although I do wish he'd at least call one of us. You don't think he's gone off to solve this on his own do you..? "

Naoto frowned. "What ever the reason maybe, we can't say for sure until we talk to Narukami. I'm sure he has his reasons for not contacting us. I'm sure once we talk to him we can come up with a way to proceed in our investigation. "

Yosuke nodded his head. "Yeah, you're right. We should go to his house after school as soon as possible. He'll be able to tell us what to do then."

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Yosuke's heart sunk when the group neared the Dojima's residence. There were a few police cars and strangers went in and out the house. What the hell was going on..?

He saw Dojima standing along side the officers in the garden. He couldn't tell what they were discussing but he was sure it was something serious. He had a really bad feeling about this.

Naoto walked a head of him and began to ask the Detective what was going on.

Dojima let out a tired sigh, he seemed like he had most likely been up all night. "Look, all I know is that he's missing. He wasn't home when I came back last night."

" What about Nanako, where's she? "

"I sent her to a friends house. If you're wondering she hasn't seen or heard anything, the only thing she saw in his room was the the blood."

" Blood!? " Yosuke saw her eyes go wide. "What blood!?"

" Blood was found on his floor and on his T.v, to be honest it's not a lot to be overly worried about. Still it if it's his blood it could mean that he's injured. If I had to say it looks like a kidnapping."

"Can we see his room?"

Dojima scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah... Sure. Forensics have already been in, I don't see the harm in it. Maybe you and your friends know more about what happened that I do."

His room was blander than Yosuke thought it would be. He had hardly any personal items apart from a few random shelves of junk, and most of his stuff still in boxes. If he had to say it almost looks like he just moved in.

" Guys, look. " 

Yosuke walked over to Chie and he saw her staring at the T.v. "The blood is here too."

Yosuke looked to where she was pointing at and sure enough there was blood along the side of the T.v. When he looked at it he could see the resemblance of where someone's fingers would have been. 

"That's strange."

" What's wrong Yosuke? "

He noticed that the way the prints were made he'd have to have been facing the other way wouldn't he of had? "These marks, they could have only been made if he was holding onto the sides from within the T.v."

Kanji frowned at him. "So what, you're suggesting is that he was pushed in? But how? There's no sign of a break in. "

Rise looked over to them with a worried expression. "This time Namatame isn't the one response. This means that who ever pushed him in may have had the intent to kill him. Right now he could be seriously hurt. This is leader we're talking about, he's hard to be caught off gaurd. That could mean the killer is really strong. " Rise's voice started to waver. "I mean why else is his blood here?"

" Calm down, Rise. " Naoto said in an attempt to calm her. "Worrying isn't going to help us." She looked over to Yosuke.

"Yosuke, if what you're suggesting is true, then I suggest we head over to June's immediately. "


	3. Chapter 3

They were currently inside the T.v in the studio backlot near the stack of T.v's. Rise had summoned Kanzeon to scan the shadow world in the search of their leader.

"Can you sense anything yet?" Chie said hopefully.

.

.

.

"Rise..?"

Rise stayed silent for a few more moments before she frowned deeply. "I... I'm not sure..."

" What do you mean..? "

"Well... It's kind of confusing. I do sense his presence here, no doubt about it but..." Rise gave a long pause as if she was trying to think of the right thing to say. " It's kinda like I'm sensing someone else entirely at the same time. "

"Wait..!? You're saying someone else is with him!?"

Rise shook her head. "No, no one else is here. It's definitely only one person that I'm sensing, I can tell it's Senpai but it's also like it's not him at the same time. I can't quite explain why though..."

" So where is he? " Kanji interjected.

"...That's also the problem. For some reason I'm sensing him directly where we're standing, and yet there's absolutely nothing here."

" Directly where we're standing..? But Teddie doesn't see anything. Maybe there's a trap door around here. "

Yukiko was quick to shoot down his suggestion. "I doubt that's the case, we've been here many times before, I'm sure we would have come across something like that if it were near here."

Rise deactivated her persona and lowered her head in defeat. "I don't think I can find him, at least not right now. Maybe there's something wrong with Kanzeon."

" Don't put yourself down. Even my nose is telling me he's close by. To be honest I'm beary confused right now. " Teddie said as he tried to comfort her.

"We should head back." Yosuke announced. "I think it's better if we discuss this somewhere else."

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End file.
